Thick as Thieves
by niidqethjot
Summary: Hiccup and Camicazi have been best friends for years, much to the misfortune of everyone around them. Explore the relationship of the two biggest troublemakers in the Barbaric Archipelago. A series of one-shots.
1. Introduction

___AN: I don't know if these are still a thing, but I'm going to try to do a 100 themes challenge. I've just been needing a little motivation lately, and hopefully this will do the trick. Enjoy!_

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**Introduction**

Hiccup gripped the railing tighter as the ship gave another lurch, trying with all his might to keep his lunch from making a sudden reappearance. If he threw up now, his father might re-evaluate taking him on this trip in the first place. He had been looking forward to this for weeks, and he wouldn't let his stomach betray him when he was so close to his goal.

"Looking a little green around the gills, aren't ya Hiccup?" Gobber joked good-naturedly.

"Huh? I don't have gills?" he said quizzically.

"He means you're looking a little seasick," Stoick said, turning to examine Hiccup. "Are you all right? Maybe you should just wait on the boat and rest once we get there. This whole thing may have been a bad idea."

Hiccup gulped down some more bile threatening to spill out. "No! I'm not 'green around the gills.' Vikings don't get seasick, so neither do I. I'm going to come to shore," he said with more conviction than he actually felt.

As another wave of nausea ran through him he added, "Besides, even if I was seasick, which I'm not, wouldn't it be better for me to get off the boat? You know, away from the sea?"

Stoick merely sighed and returned to looking at the quickly approaching land that was Bog-Burglar Island.

After an endless amount of persuading and begging, Hiccup had finally managed to convince his father to let him come on one of the visits to a fellow Archipelago tribe. It wasn't going to be any sort of big gathering, just trip to renegotiate a treaty, but to the six-year-old Hiccup, it was the adventure of a lifetime because for the first time in his life, he would be leaving Berk.

The opportunity to go somewhere, anywhere else and see more of the world than his small island was one that Hiccup simply could not pass up. Stoick, on the other hand, had a few reservations about the whole ordeal. He just wasn't sure how well his rather unviking-like son would be able to handle interacting with the rather brash and bold Bog Burglars.

In the end though, his son's pleading eyes made him decided to give it a shot. Besides, if his son was to be chief one day, he would have to learn how to interact with other tribes eventually. Better he started with the Bogs than the Hysterics or the Murderous tribes.

As the shore grew nearer and nearer, Hiccup's stomach gave another lurch, this time completely unrelated to the movement of the ship. He was finally somewhere different. It may just be another tribe's island, it may be only a short sail from his home, but it didn't matter. He was in a new land.

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"-and on my last birthday my mother finally gave me a sword, not dagger but a real sword, and she's started teaching me how to use it, and she says I'm going to be the best swordfighter the Archipelago has ever seen. Do you have a sword, have you started to learn how to use it? I mean you won't be as good as me, you are a boy after all and a Hooligan at that, but you should try it, it's a lot of fun. Oh! And did I tell you about the raid I went on last week. Well, I didn't so much go on it as sneak on the boat and hide in the box of burglary supplies the whole time, but I was there and I heard everyone-" the small blonde girl continued to babble on, barely seeming to pause for breath.

Hiccup had a hard time keeping up with all of her stories but was intrigued none the less. As soon as he and his father had stepped off the boat they had been approached by the chief of the Bog Burglars, the aptly named Big-Boobied Bertha. Alongside of her, bouncing on her toes and chattering a mile a minute, was her daughter Camicazi.

After Bertha and Stoick began to talk, they told Camicazi and Hiccup to go entertain each other while they discussed adult matters. The two children quickly ran down to the beach and started telling each other all about themselves, although Hiccup sometimes had a hard time getting a word in edgewise with the girl.

Camicazi was about his age, with wild blonde hair and an overly large sword strapped to her side. She was the heir to her tribe, like him, but unlike him, she had apparently been off the island several times despite her being only six-years-old. True, usually this was done without permission, but Hiccup still found himself rather jealous of the girl. She had already been all over the Archipelago while he was only just now leaving Berk.

Hiccup wished that he could have adventures like Camicazi. He could do without some of the danger (being in the middle of an Uglithug raid didn't sound particularly appealing) but the fact remained that Camicazi had seen parts of the world that he could only dream about.

"-and anyways you can't even get in because the vines and roots have grown over the door so much that you can't even hack your way through with a sword and I know because I've tried and I-"

"Wait, what?" Hiccup asked as came out of his musings and slowly that he hadn't heard a word Camicazi had said for the last few minutes.

Camicazi, apparently unfazed by Hiccup's lack of attention, simply started again. "Like I said, the other day I found some strange old stone door on the island just over there, carved into the hill and hidden by some trees" she repeated, pointing to a small island a little ways away from where they were standing. "I haven't told anyone else about it yet because if I told anyone else they would tell the adults and then my mother would investigate it and I wouldn't get the glory of finding whatever treasure is in there. Oh, by the way, did I mention that you can't tell anyone else about this? But anyways, I haven't been able to get through the door because my sword can't cut through the roots and vines growing all over it and it's so frustrating because I just know there is something spectacular behind that door but I just can't reach it!"

Hiccup looked closer at the island. It wasn't that far, less than an hour by boat, with trees growing densely on and around the large hill at the center. He briefly wondered how Camicazi had even gotten over there before remembering the story she had just told about her experience in the Uglithug raid. Somehow, he's pretty sure she could have found a way there.

He quickly turned his mind back to Camicazi's problem. "If the door is stone and it's only covered in roots and stuff, couldn't you just set the door on fire? That would get rid of the plants on the door without actually harming it."

Camicazi was quiet for a moment as her eyes widened and a great grin broke over her face. "By gods, that is brilliant! I'd be able to get through the door for sure then!" She began to jump up and down in excitement, celebrating her imagined victory over the door. "That is an absolutely genius idea!...for a boy of course."

She then grabbed Hiccup's arm and pulled him back towards the now empty docks. "Come on! Let's go see if it works!"

"Wait, you mean right now? But our parents told us not to wander too far. I'm pretty sure that going to another island counts as 'too far,'" Hiccup said. He had only just managed to get his father to agree to let him come, and he didn't want his first trip off the island to also be his last.

"Oh please, we can be there and back before they even notice we're gone," Camicazi stated brusquely. They arrived at a small rowboat at the docks and Camicazi quickly ambled in. She turned back towards Hiccup, arms crossed. "Well, are you coming?"

Hiccup hesitated. On the one hand, he didn't want to make his father angry. He had worked hard to convince Stoick that he was ready for the responsibility of behaving during a tribal visit, and he didn't want his father to second-guess his trust in his son. On the other hand, Hiccup had just been lamenting the fact that he hadn't been on nearly as many adventures as Camicazi, and here was an opportunity basically being shoved in his face.

He looked at the small girl in the boat, and found a matching smile spreading on his face. "Okay, let's do this."

Camicazi whooped. "Yes! Let the 'Quest for the Weird Door' begin! We'll think of a better name later."

Hiccup jumped into the boat and Camicazi pushed off, heading towards the small island, both of them overcome with the excitement of the unknown and reveling in company of kindred spirit.


	2. Complicated

_A/N: I swear, there will be actual action soon (like next chapter). But until then enjoy this little chapter where it's Hiccup's turn to suggest an adventure. I'm thinking that I'll update this every week on Monday. I would have updated it yesterday, but I kept getting an error. Feel free to leave any constructive criticism!_

**Complicated**

Camicazi blinked, trying to comprehend what Hiccup had just been saying. It admittedly was difficult seeing as how she had accidentally stopped paying attention a couple of minutes ago. Her mind had wandered to the Bashyball game she was supposed to be playing in about an hour. She had been bragging to all of the Hooligans about how she and the other Bogs were going to crush them and she didn't mean to go back on that promise. She was looking forward to crushing Snotlout in particular, the brainless oaf.

"I'm sorry, could you repeat all that. I didn't exactly follow any of it," she said to him, managing to sound at least a little sheepish.

Hiccup huffed but was overall unfazed. After being friends with Camicazi for close to nine years, it would take a lot more than a little inattention to set him off. "Okay, it's like this. You know who Bork the Bold is, right?" he asked.

Camicazi thought for a moment. She was sure she had heard that name before, but where? "Oh, isn't he that guy you Hooligans are always going on and on about. The guy who studied dragons and wrote some book, right?"

"Yes, he wrote the Book of Dragons, but he didn't stop there. He had tons of other information, miscellaneous notes and pamphlets about dragons that were never put into the book. It's all actually really interesting. For example, one section talks about-" Hiccup continued to ramble excitedly. Camicazi just nodded along with his explanation, wondering where it was headed. She enjoyed watching Hiccup get excited about something he was passionate about, but she really hoped there was a point to all of this.

She also hoped that he could get to that point soon. The other teens were gathering on the field to start preparing for the game, and she didn't want to be late.

"-and then the male uses his mucus to-"

"Okay, Hiccup, I've got to stop you there," Camicazi quickly cut him off. "While I do genuinely enjoy learning about the mating habits of Burrowing Slitherfangs, you mentioned needing my help with something. Could we skip ahead just a little bit? I have to start getting ready for the Basyball game soon."

To his credit, Hiccup snapped out of it quickly and continued. "Right, to the point. A few months ago, my dad entrusted me with all of these documents as the leader of the training academy."

"Congratulations Hiccup! That's quite an honor, isn't it?" Camicazi beamed at him, slapping him on the back.

"Yeah, it's great!" Hiccup agreed. "Only…I have a small problem," he said hesitantly.

When he didn't continue, Camicazi pushed onwards. "Well, go on," she urged. "What's the problem and how can I help?"

"Well, you see, the other day I was in my room modifying Toothless's tailfin-"

"Why weren't you doing that in the forge?"

"Because it was more of a precision adjustment, and Gobber was tramping all around the forge working on a large order of saddles."

"Don't you have your own back workroom?"

"Yeah, but Toothless doesn't fit back there," Hiccup said, exasperated. "Did you or did you not want me to get back to the point?"

"By all means," Camicazi said graciously. "I swear, your problems are more complicated than a Grimbeard the Ghastly riddle."

"Anyways, while adjusting the saddle to make sure it worked with the improved tail, I made a new discovery. Dragons, or Night Furies at least, have a very small and particular spot on their underbellies that cause them to spontaneously burp."

Camicazi couldn't hold back a snort. "He burped? So what's the problem, did it smell rancid?"

"No," Hiccup said, looking increasingly embarrassed with each passing second. "But he's a dragon. And when dragons burp, they're usually accompanied by…fire."

"So what does that have to do with-" Camicazi's eyes widened, suddenly connecting the amusing burping dragon story with the information about Bork's memoirs. "You didn't…"

Hiccup grimaced. "I did."

Her mouth dropped in disbelief. "You actually burned all of Bork the Bold's Dragon Documents? What are you going to do? Your father's going to be furious."

"I know that," Hiccup said rolling his eyes. "But I do have a plan. I remember reading in one of his papers that Bork made a copy of everything he ever wrote. All I have to do is go to where the copies are and bring them back to Berk. My dad will never have to know about any of this."

"Okay, so where are they?" Camicazi asked. If he already knew where to find the copies, she didn't really see how this was a problem at all. He was making this far more complicated than it needed to be.

"Actually, that's where you come in," he said gesturing to her. "I kind of need your and Evan's help to get the papers."

She glanced over at her dragon, Evanescent, or Evan for short, who was currently playing with the sheep. The curious Changewing was changing itself white all over, apparently trying to convince the sheep that she was one of them. Camicazi had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing at the spectacle. It had only been a few weeks since Hiccup had helped her train Evan, insisting the entire time that she shouldn't call her female dragon a male name, but the two had become fast friends. Camicazi could hardly imagine life without Evan now.

"And what can The Great Camicazi and her Scaly Companion Evan do for you?" she asked grandiosely.

This time it was Hiccup who couldn't hold back a snort. "Well actually, the papers aren't exactly in a place where we're allowed into. Sooooo… I figured I could use the help of the greatest burglar I know and her camouflaging dragon," he said flatteringly.

"And where exactly would we be going?" she asked, intrigued. She was never one to pass up a chance to show off her burglary skills, but Hiccup wasn't usually the one to suggest it.

"They're kind of in the…Meathead Public Library," Hiccup rushed out.

Camicazi just stared blankly at him for a few seconds. "Wait…the Meathead Public Library?"

"Yes."

"As in the one protected by hundreds of Meathead guards as well as the Hairy Scary Librarian and his Heart-Slicers?"

"Yes."

"As in the one that _I_ suggested we burgle last year and you said was too dangerous and we would get ourselves killed? That is the place where you are now saying we should go?"

"Well, yes," Hiccup said haltingly. "Back when you suggested it, we didn't have dragons. But now we do, so I think we might actually be able to pull it off. I figure that we can avoid the Meathead guards by simply flying over them and entering through a window. Then once inside, if we see the Hairy Scary Librarian, we can use Evan's camouflage to hide. Then we just grab the papers and go. So what do you say?"

"What do I say?" Camicazi said incredulously. "I say why did you spend the last fifteen minutes telling me all this instead of leading with that!" She ran towards Evan and jumped on her back. "Come on, let's go! We could have been halfway there by now if you hadn't made that explanation so complicated! Next time just say 'Do you want to burgle the Meathead Public Library?' and we can get started right away."

Hiccup laughed at her enthusiasm and hopped on Toothless's back as well. "Wait, what about your Bashyball game?"

Camicazi looked at him like he had grown a second head. "We have better things to do, now come on!" she shouted shooting into the air, already imagining just what the library might look like on the inside and her fellow Bog's faces when she came back having pulled off the greatest heist any of them had ever seen.


	3. Making History

_A/N: Well, here's the third chapter. Because there's been some confusion, I just want to clarify that all of the chapters will not be sequential. Some will take place before the movie, some will take place after. There isn't a unified story line. Sorry for any confusion! Anyways, enjoy this chapter, let me know what you think, and I'll post a new one in a week!  
_

**Making History**

Hiccup's lungs burned as he ran full tilt along the hallway, Camicazi's pants heard just to his right. He was trying as hard as he could to ignore the pounding of the footsteps behind him, but the presence of an entire group of Roman guards is a difficult thing to ignore even if they weren't in their line of vision at the moment.

"Right! Turn right!" he yelled as he and Camicazi came to another hallway going perpendicular to theirs. As his friend went to follow his directions, he quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her to the left.

"What are you-" she began to protest but Hiccup quickly clapped a hand over her mouth and continued running.

"They couldn't see us yet," he whispered. "Hopefully, they'll head to the right looking for us and we can escape."

"Oh!" Camicazi said quietly, catching on to the plan. "Good idea! Just one problem. I can still hear them coming."

Hiccup bit his lip as he heard just what Camicazi was talking about. There weren't as many footsteps as before, but he could still hear the unmistakable pounding of Roman boots. Looking around, he realized that they had run into the kitchen, and unfortunately he had no idea how to get to the exit from there.

"Quick, over here!" Camicazi whispered, grabbing his arm this time and pulling him over to a large cooking pot that looked like it had just been washed. She jumped inside, pulling Hiccup in after her. They both sunk down as low as they could and began praying that no one would look inside. Thankfully, they were both relatively small children, so hiding in such a large pot was rather easy.

No sooner did they stop their fidgeting than a small group of guards entered in the kitchen. They paused, apparently trying to figure out where their prey could have gone.

"_I don't see anyone. Are you sure they went this way?" _Hiccup heard one of the guards say in Latin. Camicazi shot him a quizzical look, asking him what they were saying.

"_They had to go down one of these hallways. Keep going. If we don't find these pipsqueak intruders it will be our heads. Now go!"_

The guards continued on past their hiding place and exited through the door on the other side of the kitchen. As soon as they could no longer hear footsteps, the two 'pipsqueak intruders' dared to peak out from their hiding spot.

"Good thinking Camicazi," Hiccup said as he tumbled out of the pot.

"You're not the only one who can come up with genius ideas. Now, what were they saying?" she asked impatiently.

"Nothing important. Just that they need to find us. We need to get out of here," Hiccup told her as he struggled to remember the layout of the building. They were in the kitchen, so the guard barracks must be nearby. Too bad he didn't know how to get to the exit from there either; he really should have paid more attention to where they were heading when they got here. He groaned in frustration. "Why did I let you talk me into this? My dad is going to be furious! You know our parents will have realized we're gone by now, right?"

"Oh you worry too much," Camicazi replied flippantly. "Besides, they were due to start the drinking contest when we left. You know that can last for days, even weeks; we're fine." Hiccup rolled his eyes at her eternal optimism. Was it so hard for her to admit that they were in bad situation? "Also, I'm not leaving here until I've properly burgled it. That's why we came here in the first place, isn't it? To be the youngest Vikings ever to rob a Roman fortress! We're gonna be legends!" she exclaimed.

"Only if we get out of this alive," Hiccup reminded her. Though he had to admit, it would be cool if he could go down in history as the only nine-year-old to ever successfully break into Fort Sinister. "Let's just focus on escaping. You can burgle the fort some other time."He glanced towards the fireplace where there was nothing but smoldering ashes.

"The chimney! That's got to lead out of the fort!" he said, finally seeing a glimmer of hope in their mission.

"Great! One second," Camicazi said as she quickly ran over to the wall opposite their means of escape. She grabbed a helmet that was lying on the floor and scampered back towards Hiccup. "If we don't have the time to properly loot this place, then this Roman helmet will have to do," she says plopping it on her head.

"Okay, fine. Do you have your burglary equipment?" Hiccup asked. He took her scoff to mean 'yes.' "You need to take your grappling hook, throw it up, and hook the side of the top of the chimney. Then we can climb up and hopefully make it back to our boat," he instructed.

Camicazi did as Hiccup said and was able to hit her target on the first try. "Easy-peasy," she said with a smirk. She then took hold of the rope and began to climb with Hiccup following right after her.

When Camicazi made it to the top, she reached down, helped Hiccup up the rest of the way, and then pulled up her hook, wrapping it around her shoulder for safe keeping. Panting, they both took a look around trying to figure out exactly where they were.

"Well, it looks like we're on the East side of the fort. Our boat is on the North, so head left," Hiccup said once he had regained his breath.

"Now when you say left, do you mean actually go left, or go right to confuse the Romans?" Camicazi asked him. At his glare, she added, "Oh, I'm just joking. Come on, race you there!"

They both took off running once again along roof towards the Northern edge. However, they came to a stuttering halt as they caught sight of a group of soldiers directly below them. Hiccup and Camicazi quickly ducked behind a stone rampart and held their breath. When nothing happened, Hiccup peaked around to see what was going on below.

The Romans were apparently being addressed by someone very important because everyone's eyes were fixated on an official looking man giving some sort of speech. Such was his authority that not one of them even dared to fidget.

"_They are miniscule little barbarians! How difficult could it be to bring them in! All of you are utterly incompetent. Look at the Prefect here. He was able to locate the hooligans' vessel in a matter of minutes! You have been trying to find them for hours and NOTHING!"_ a rather large man in very fancy clothes was yelling at the troops. Hiccup assumed he was some sort of Roman official because of the golden circlet of leaves he wore around his head.

"_Look at their pathetic boat! How did they manage to sneak into our fort in such a useless little thing! Look at it! Look at your incompetence!" _the man continued to yell, causing all of the soldiers to reluctantly turn around and look at the rickety boat that Hiccup and Camicazi had used to sail to Fort Sinister.

Hiccup leaned forward, hoping to catch a better look of the Prefect that had found their boat hidden in the reeds, when suddenly he felt the stone beneath him begin to crumble. As he began to fall, he flailed his arms trying to grab a hold of something but felt nothing but air. And so he plummeted towards the ground.

He could see the earth getting closer and closer, and had begun praying to the gods for a quick death, when he felt a tug at his tunic and came to a halt. Looking up, he saw that Camicazi had somehow managed to throw the grappling hook down towards him and hook his shirt, saving him from crashing into the ground.

"_You are the most pathetic bunch of men I have ever had the misfortune of having to call soldiers! You do not deserve to even look at me!" _the fat man bellowed on, completely drowning out all the noise that Hiccup's fall had made. When he looked down, Hiccup realized that he was currently hanging directly above the man and was so close that if he reached out, he could touch him. Luckily, with everyone looking at the boat, no one noticed the small boy dangling above their leader's head.

Hiccup looked back up at Camicazi, who was holding the rope, and then back down at the man, whose circlet glinted in the sunlight. Then back up, then back down. Before he knew what he was doing, Hiccup quickly grabbed the circlet right off of the man's head and motioned to a stunned Camicazi to pull him back up.

She began pulling, and before anyone turned around, Hiccup was safely back behind the rampart. With a stroke of luck, the fat Roman was too busy yelling to feel a thing. _"I want every single man either searching the castle or guarding this rickety vessel of theirs until the barbarians are brought to justice!"_

"What did you just do!?" Camicazi exclaimed quietly once they were sure no one had seen them.

"Apparently I've been hanging around you too much," Hiccup said with a grin, "because as soon as I saw that crown, I just had to take it! It was the perfect opportunity and we were never going to have it again! Besides, weren't you just saying that you wanted to properly burgle the place?" He took his newfound treasure and put it on his own head, so that he and Camicazi were now both wearing Roman headwear.

The both began laughing at the absurdity of the whole ordeal when there was suddenly an uproar down below. Apparently the missing crown had been noticed.

"I wouldn't be opposed to a fiendishly clever plan right about now," Camicazi said to Hiccup. "Seeing as how we are surrounded by Romans, they have our boat, and I doubt they're going to be leaving it anytime soon so we can make our escape."

Hiccup thought about it for a moment. "Wait a minute…if everyone is either searching the castle or guarding our boat, who's guarding their boats?" he said suggestively.

"You want to steal a Roman ship?" Camicazi asked incredulously. Then, breaking into a grin, she added, "Who are you and what have you done with Hiccup?"

"Let's go! Their ships are to the South!" he said as they took off running, wondering just how they were going to explain all of this to their parents.


	4. Rivalry

_A/N: Hey everyone, here is the next chapter. There's a little less Hiccup and Camicazi interaction until the end, but I liked the idea of Camicazi and Snotlout rivalry so I ran with it. I hope all of you like it too, so please let me know what you think. Constructive criticism is more than welcome._

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**Rivalry**

"And that's nine," Camicazi slurred as the slammed down the mug. "Beat that you dirty Hooligans."

She glanced around the table to take stock of who remained in their competition. Following in the footsteps of their parents, the Viking teens of the Hooligan and Bog tribes had decided to split into teams and have a drinking contest, and they were going at it with even more gusto than the adults.

That gusto had led to some rather unfortunate results for some of them. Camicazi looked to the right where the twins were currently collapsed on top of one another; they had gone out in the first couple of rounds after repeatedly punching each other in the face to see how slow their reaction times were. Right next to them were two of her fellow Bogs, Sporta and Beefburger, lying prostrate on the floor after forgetting the number one rule of drinking: Eat First.

Over to her left, Camicazi could see Astrid, face still in the bucket where she had emptied the contents of her stomach. She hadn't moved in a while, so Camicazi assumed she had finally passed out. At least that's what she hoped had happened. From behind her she could hear mumbled phrases such as _"…just give us a minute, we'll get right back in there…"_ coming from Typhoon and Harriettahorse, but as they had been saying that for the last twenty minutes, Camicazi was fairly certain neither girl was exactly lucid at the moment.

Maybe this hadn't been a good idea…

But by Thor, good idea or not, she was going to win this.

Only three competitors were currently left standing. Camicazi was the only Bog that had made it this far, mostly through sheer stubbornness. The Hooligans had two representatives, the first of which was Snotlout, who had been boasting for the better part of a day how spectacularly he would perform. The other Hooligan left, to the surprise of everyone, including himself, was Hiccup. However, if the way he was holding his head and grimacing were any indication, he wouldn't last much longer.

When handed his next mug of mead, Hiccup simply put his head down on the table. "I can't do it. I'm out. Wake me when it's over," he said, closing his eyes.

Camicazi threw her hands up in celebration and nearly fell off of the bench, only managing to grab the edge of the table at the last second. "Looks like it's just you and me Snotface."

Snotlout let out a rather loud belch and wiped his hand across his face. "Prepare to taste defeat you tiny…little…girly person," he said lamely, unable to really form a coherent sentence given his previous eight mugs of mead.

"I'm pretty sure we're all going to be tasting something in a few minutes," Hiccup mumbled, clutching his stomach.

Snotlout was passed another mug by Fishlegs, who was refereeing the competition due to his self-proclaimed sensitive stomach. Snotlout didn't even look at the drink before chugging it and slamming the now empty cup on the table like Camicazi had just done. "There is no way that I am getting beat by some Bog. The only good Bog Burglar is a dead Bog Burglar," Snotlout said slowly, trying to make sure his words came out in the right order.

"How fitting," Camicazi slurred. "Because the only way you're going to win is over my dead body." She grabbed another mead from Fishlegs and quickly downed it.

"Uh guys, maybe we should just call it a tie. I mean, you've both had a lot, and I'm pretty sure everyone else has passed out," Fishlegs said, trying fruitlessly to reason with the two very drunk individuals. To illustrate his point, he prodded the now silent Harriettahorse, who didn't respond.

"No way," said Snotlout, grabbing another mug out of Fishlegs's hand and downing it in one gulp. "I've almost got her. Everyone knows that the bigger you are, the more you can drink. There is no way I'm losing to this…pipsqueak," he spat out, feeling awfully proud he was able to think of a semi-decent insult.

"Kick his ass Camicazi," Hiccup said, head still down on the table and momentarily forgetting that he should be rooting for the Hooligans.

"Oh, I intend to," Camicazi sneered. She grabbed **two** mugs, downing one right after another. At Snotlout's wide-eyed stare, she said, "You're move Snotface." She let out a long belch of her own, quickly bring her hand up to her mouth at the end as something other than air threatened to come out. After a moment she swallowed, and managed to laugh, "Oops, I almost had a reversal of fortune there. Hehe. Anyways, you need two drinks to tie and three to win."

Snotlout looked warily at the three mugs that Fishlegs had reluctantly brought over. "Like my mom always says," Camicazi continued. "The only good Hooligan is a dead Hooligan." Snotlout glared and grabbed his first mug. He managed to choke it down with much difficulty, and he reluctantly grabbed the second.

As his face began to turn green and Camicazi began planning her celebration, there was suddenly a loud bang in the Great Hall as the doors were swung open. A frazzled looking Mulch ran in, shouting "Where's the Dragon Training Academy? We have a problem!"

Snotlout, Camicazi, and Fishlegs stood petrified, the former two trying to make their eyes focus on Mulch despite their double vision. With much effort, the barely conscious Hiccup managed to raise his hand and say as loudly as his pounding head would allow, "Over here."

Mulch rushed over and quickly began rambling. "There's a wild Timberjack heading right towards the village! It's cutting down the entire forest and no one knows how to stop it! You have to do something!"

Snotlout stood up shakily and put his hand of Mulch's shoulder. "Don't worry about it. We've got this covered," he managed to say, and quickly sent Mulch away. Once he was out of earshot, Snotlout fell back into his seat and turned to Fishlegs. "Fishlegs, handle this."

"What!? I can't handle a wild Timberjack all by myself!" Fishlegs screeched. "Hiccup, you've got to help us!"

Hiccup, who still hadn't moved his head form the table, only managed to say something that sounded somewhere between a grunt and a moan.

"I don't think Hiccup can move," Snotlout said unhelpfully.

"Probably for the best," Camicazi said, barely managing to pull herself up out of her seat. "Even if he could, I don't think he should try flying Toothless. He does have to try to steer that tail after all. There's no way that would end well."

Snotlout attempted to stand up again, but promptly lost his balance and once again fell back onto his seat. "This is not going to work," he said, glancing at the terrified Fishlegs and the inebriated Camicazi.

"What are you talking about? I feel fine, I could take on that oversized lizard all by my—woah!" Camicazi said, taking a step towards the door and promptly falling on her face. "Okay, maybe we need a new plan."

Fishlegs looked between Camicazi laying on the floor and Snotlout stuck in his seat, praying to the gods that one of them would suddenly feel all right enough to help him. When neither of them moved, he gulped nervously. "Well, um, I guess I'll, um, take care of it, and, um, do…something?"

"Okay, hurry back," Camicazi said, deciding that remaining on the floor was easier than trying to stand up. Fishlegs scurried out of the Great Hall as the world faded to black for Camicazi and Snotlout.

* * *

This fist thing she became aware of was a blinding light. Had the sun always been so bright? The second thing was the pounding in her head. What happened last night? She remembered coming into the Great Hall with her fellow Bogs, challenging the Hooligans to a drinking contest, everyone else dropping like flies (they were Vikings, shouldn't they know how to handle their alcohol better?), she's pretty sure she remembers winning the contest, something about a dragon…

Camicazi's eyes snapped open and she immediately sat up. "Uuuuuugh, that was a bad decision," she moaned, holding her head and waiting for the room to stop spinning. She looked around and spotted all the other teens, sans Fishlegs, scattered around the room. Astrid, who was over to the left slowly standing up, looked to be the only other one who was currently conscious.

"Astrid," Camicazi croaked out, cringing at the sound of her own voice. She gave a cough and continued. "Where's Fishlegs?"

Astrid looked around, trying to determine where the voice had come from. When her eyes eventually landed on Camicazi, she stared for a moment, as if trying to focus, and then said in a deadpan, "I don't know. I just woke up and no one has entered or left the Great Hall. All I know for sure is my head hurts and I really need a drink of water."

Camicazi sighed. "Thanks anyways. And let me know if you find some water. I really need to get this taste out of my mouth." At Astrid's nod, she stood up, trying to ignore the instant vertigo, and headed towards Hiccup. His head was still down on the table in the exact same position of last night.

She paused for a moment in front of him and eventually slapped him on the back of the head. "Get up. We need to find Fishlegs."

Hiccup's only response was a loud moan. "Come on Hiccup! Move!"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"I don't care if you don't want to move. You're coming with me," she said, grabbing Hiccup's arm and slinging it over her shoulder.

"Gah!" was the only thing Hiccup was able to get out before they were slowly heading towards the open door that was letting in that annoying sunlight. "Okay, okay, I'm moving, you can let go." After she dropped his arm, he used it rub his eyes. "My head feels like it's about to split in half, and I blame you."

"What do you mean? It's not my fault you can't hold your alcohol as well as me. Ughhhhh." She covered her eyes and groaned as they stepped outside into the direct sun. "You know what, maybe we can find Fishlegs later. Like at night. When the sun is gone."

"Why are we looking for Fishlegs anyways," Hiccup asked, also trying to shield his eyes from the blinding light.

"Last night after you passed out there was apparently some sort of dragon attack. A Timbercutter or something. Anyways, Fishlegs said he would deal with it." She looked around the village. "Judging by the fact that the village isn't destroyed I guess he succeeded."

Hiccup stumbled down the steps. "I feel like I should be more concerned about this, but I can't seem to muster up the energy," he said. Suddenly, they heard a shout and simultaneously groaned at the volume.

"Hey! Hiccup! Camicazi! How are you doing!" a very excited figure yelled while rushing towards them. Camicazi squinted and realized that it was Fishlegs.

"Oh thank gods. We don't have to keep looking for him," she gasped.

"How much looking did we actually do?" Hiccup asked, although he was also grateful that they wouldn't have to search the entire village for him.

"Hey guys! Glad to see you awake. You were pretty out of it last night," Fishlegs greeted.

"Hey Fishlegs," Camciazi said. "Look, I need to go inside and lay down for a few hours…or days… so I'm going to be quick. What happened with the Lumberjack or whatever?"

"Oh, the Timberjack? Yeah, I just got a few of the villagers together and we used our dragons to catch it for training. It's waiting in the Academy whenever you're ready, Hiccup," Fishlegs said cheerily.

"Yeah, that's great Fishlegs," Hiccup said dismissively. After a moment, he added, "Wait, what do you mean you got a few villagers and dragons together?"

Fishlegs shot him a look. "I mean I found some of our villagers, who ride dragons, and we dealt with the Timberjack." As Hiccup just continued to stare at him, he added, "You do remember that the Academy members aren't the only people in the village who ride dragons, right? That would be kind of limited."

Hiccup just stared blankly at him for a few seconds. "I need to go back to sleep," he said turning around and heading towards his house.

"Right behind you," said Camicazi.


	5. Unbreakable

_A/N: Okay everyone, here's the next chapter. This one has a different tone that the previous chapters, and I'm not sure how I feel about the final product. I'm not entirely sure I was able to get across the emotions I was going for, but I think I got pretty close. So read and review and let me know what you think!  
_

* * *

**Unbreakable**

Hiccup woke up with a throbbing in his head that sent waves of agony with every pulse and showed no signs of letting up. Trying to think back to what could have caused his current torture, his first thought was that he probably shouldn't have drunk so much in the contest against the Bogs. His second thought was that the contest had been several years ago and none of them had ever made that mistake again. Which left him at a complete loss as to what was going on.

He cautiously opened his eyes, bracing against the blinding light that always seemed to accompany hangovers. Instead he was met with a strange dark stone room with only a single window high above him and a door directly in front of him. As he made to head towards the door, he came to another realization; his arms were chained to the walls.

Suddenly the previous night came flooding back to him: stopping to camp with Camicazi on their way to check out rumors of new dragon species on a distant island; Camicazi heading down towards the river to get some water; him leaving Toothless and Evan in the clearing and going after her because she said she would do all the hard work since she's the girl; bickering good naturedly with her by the stream about who was pulling the most weight on their journey… being ambushed by thirty men and everything going black. He didn't remember much after that.

Suddenly his predicament was starting to make sense. He tried to get a better sense of where he was, but the best he could figure out was that he was in some sort of prison tower and, much to his alarm, Camicazi was nowhere to be seen.

He tried moving the shackles around his wrists, but they wouldn't budge. His hands remained firmly chained to the wall above his head. He wondered what happened to Toothless and Evan. He wondered how far away they were from their campsite. He wondered if Camicazi was okay.

Suddenly the door swung open and a tall, menacing man walked in. The pounding in Hiccup's head made it difficult to take in too much about the man, but he found himself unable to look away from his face. He had cold, gray eyes and a sinister smile that seemed to say that he was enjoying Hiccup's suffering a little too much.

For a few moments, he merely looked at Hiccup. As for himself, Hiccup simply glared at the man. There was no question that this stranger was responsible for their capture, or at the very least, he worked for those who were.

Eventually, the man broke the silence first. "Well, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the third, what an honor it is to finally meet you," he sneered.

Hiccup tensed. "How do you know me?" he asked cautiously.

"Everyone knows about the famed Dragon Conqueror of the Barbaric Archipelago. Your name is well known all over. You should be proud," he complimented. "Not many barbarians truly interest us. But you…you are quite special."

"And who exactly is 'us'?" Hiccup asked.

The man made a sound of disapproval. "And here I heard that you were smart. You should recognize the uniform; you've seen it before."

He took a closer look at the man's clothes, and suddenly things started clicking in his brain. "That's a Roman uniform," he said with a sense of dread. He had indeed seen it before, when he and Camicazi had broken into Fort Sinister and stolen a crown right off of their leader's head. He hadn't thought that the Romans had ever gotten a good enough look at them to figure out who they were.

Apparently he had been wrong.

"Yes, so glad you remember us from your short little jaunt at Fort Sinister. That was…what? Over ten years ago I believe? We Romans don't take kindly to thieves, especially ones that insult us by daring to touch the _Corona Triumphalis_," he spat at Hiccup, crouching down and getting inches from his face.

"The what?" Hiccup asked.

The man rolled his eyes. "Aren't you supposed to be the clever one? I'll put this in terms you can understand: the gold crowny-thing," he said mockingly.

Hiccup rolled his eyes right back, but the man's first sentence suddenly sparked something in his brain. If he was the clever one, that meant there was someone else… "Where is my friend?" he said levelly.

"The feisty blonde girl? You don't need to worry about her. At least, you won't soon," he said ominously.

"What have you done with her? Where is she?" Hiccup shouted, beginning to panic.

"Now, now, settle down. I'll tell you all about her. But first, you need to do something for me," the man said. When Hiccup simply kept glaring, the man took it as a sign to continue.

"You're pretty good with dragons, aren't you? You train them, is that right? Well, we have captured a dragon that we would very much like trained. Preferably while it's young and small. You see, this type of dragon can be quite a handful when it gets big. We call it _daemonium de igne et aere_. I believe your people gave it a… more simplistic name. Now what was it again?" He paused, thoughtfully tapping his finger on his chin. "Ah, yes! I believe you would call it the 'Red Death'."

Hiccup gasped. "You have a young Red Death?" he whispered. He had thought the giant beast he had faced was the only one that existed. If the Romans had found another, how many more were there? And if they wanted him to train it…

"Yes, we have it. And if you ever want to see your friend again, you will cooperate with us. Have I made myself clear?"

Hiccup's mind was reeling. If the Roman's had a trained Red Death on their side, there would be no stopping them. No civilization would stand a chance against them, Viking or otherwise. But…if he didn't, he would never leave this dungeon, and worse, neither would Camicazi. After all their years together, he couldn't just sentence her to life in a Roman prison, or worse: execution.

His mind went back several years when a similar demand had been made of him on Outcast Island. That time, instead of Camicazi's life hanging in the balance, it had been Toothless's. And he had refused because he knew that he would find a way to escape somehow. Was he as confident now with the Romans?

"Train it yourself," Hiccup growled. Then, to emphasize his point, he spat in the man's face.

The Roman didn't really react. He merely stood up and wiped the saliva off of his face. "I'm not sure you understand your situation," he said calmly. "We have ways of persuading you. No one is unbreakable."

"We'll get out of this somehow. I don't know how, but we will, we always do. Now get out of here you bastard," Hiccup said defiantly. Throughout all of their time together, Camicazi had always been almost annoyingly optimistic. Even when things looked their darkest, she had always believed that they would come out on top. Now it was his turn.

The man turned around but made no move to leave. "You still don't get it, do you?" he asked sadly. "When I say you won't see your friend again if you don't cooperate, I don't mean we'll kill her; I mean we won't save her."

Hiccup's breath caught in his chest. "What do you mean?" he asked slowly, barely speaking above a whisper.

"She fought valiantly in that ambush. Managed to take out a few of our men. But she didn't know when to give up." He turned around and looked Hiccup square in the eye. "She was mortally wounded. Took a sword straight to the stomach. Without medical help, she has an hour at best. Two if she's lucky."

Hiccup felt numb. This couldn't be true. Camicazi couldn't be…

"If you think you can pull off a successful escape and get your friend proper medical care in less than two hours, be my guest. Otherwise…well, you know what you have to do."

He turned around and went out the door. Before he could close it though, he heard the shout "Wait!" and paused, turning his head back towards the prisoner.

Hiccup refused to meet the man's eyes. "I'll do whatever you want," he whispered. "Just save her."


	6. Obsession

_A/N: Okay, here's the next chapter! It is a continuation of the previous chapter, Unbreakable, and you find out what's going on with Camicazi. Enjoy! And don't forget to tell me what you think._

* * *

**Obsession**

Camicazi wriggled her wrists, trying to get access to some of her burglary supplies. If she wanted any hope of getting out of these shackles, she needed to get to her lock pick. Unfortunately, it was rather difficult to get a good hold on it when her hands were currently above her head, chained to the wall. She didn't know how she had gotten into this room, but she knew that things were going to get very bad very quickly if she didn't get out of here soon.

She knew she shouldn't have let her guard down while getting the water at the river; she was fairly certain that was when the trouble started. But Hiccup had distracted her.

She vaguely remembered teasing him about something unimportant; something about how as the girl, she would be more than happy to do all the hard work on their trip since he was just a boy. He said something about how they were on their way to check out the rumors of a new dragon on some distant isle, something that he had more knowledge about than her, and therefore obviously most of the hard work would have to fall to him.

It hadn't been a serious argument, and she had been having fun trying to get him to admit that girls were better than boys during their squabble.

But after that, nothing. Her mind was a complete blank.

She knows she should probably be worried about the fact that she didn't see Hiccup and had no idea where he was, but regardless of his location, she would be useless to him if she was stuck here. With that in mind, she continued trying to get to her equipment.

She huffed as she felt her lock pick fall down her sleeve and far away from her hands where it was needed. It was only a minor setback, but not one she could afford right now.

Just as she started working to get the pick from its much more inconvenient position, she froze at the sound of footsteps.

Suddenly the door opened and a tall man entered. She took in his outfit, which looked familiar but she couldn't seem to place, and then let her eyes settle on his face. He narrowed his eyes and scrunched up his nose, as if he had spotted a particularly offensive and pungent piece of garbage that he didn't want to be around for very long.

Assuming the look was aimed at her, Camicazi returned it in kind. She didn't appreciate the situation any more than he did.

"Well, look who's finally awake," he sneered. "We had hoped the ambush we set for you wouldn't take too much out of you."

"I've been awake for hours," Camicazi fibbed. It had only been about ten minutes, but he didn't need to know that. "It's not my fault you couldn't get off your lazy bum to greet me properly."

The mystery man scowled even more. "Always the cheeky one, aren't you," he said, clearly annoyed. "You might want to show me a bit more respect girl, seeing as how your future depends on me, and frankly, I'm not particularly fond of thieves who steal the triumphal honors awarded to my general."

Camicazi rolled her eyes. "I steal a lot of things from a lot of people. Care to be a little more specific?"

"Ten years ago. You stole the crown from the Roman General at Fort Sinister, you little imp," he said curtly, kneeling down to her level.

Camicazi couldn't help but smirk, remembering that day. In fact, it was Hiccup who stole the crown on a whim, right off the man's head. It had been quite funny to the both of them that he had managed to upstage a Bog in burgling.

She went to correct the man, but he continued, "You realize that is an offense that is punishable by instant execution, don't you?"

"And yet I'm still here," Camicazi said brightly, deciding she might as well keep the credit if it kept Hiccup from being executed. Besides, it was all semantics anyways since she did help. She was the one holding the rope after all.

"As it turns out, your quick fingers could be of some use to us. If you do a little something for us, we might be able to help you out of your current predicament," he said as though making a deal with her left a bad taste in his mouth.

"And of what use could a little imp such as me be to the great Roman Empire?" she asked mockingly.

"We have reason to believe that the Visigoths are planning an attack against us," he stated, quickly getting down to business. "We will soon have a new secret weapon that they won't have a prayer against, but you needn't worry about that; it's been taken care of. However, before we can use it, we need to know what they're planning. They can spot a Roman from a mile away, but they wouldn't expect to a miniature Viking in their midst. All we need you to do is steal their battle plans so we can plan our counterattack," the man said smoothly. "Well?"

"Hmm…" she said, looking towards the ceiling as if in deep thought. "Pass, but thank you for the offer."

"Bogs are very loyal to one another, are they not?" the man asked, standing up and examining the shackles around her wrists.

Camicazi paused, put off by the sudden change in topic. "Yeah, you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us," she said, trying to sound intimidating.

"That's right…whenever you people go on a raid, it seems like it's the entire tribe that comes out. You all seem to share some sort of obsession with robbing everybody blind and tearing down anyone who stands in your way," he went on.

"Yeah…" she said, becoming increasingly uneasy with the direction this conversation was taking.

"And yet," he said, cutting his eyes to hers, "you didn't come to Fort Sinister with another Bog, did you?"

Camicazi swallowed, hoping he wasn't going where she though he was going with this. "No, I came with an ally of the tribe. It's good to change things up once in a while you know."

"Yes, your accomplice was Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, was it not?" At her silence, he went on. "Clearly you do not share your tribe's obsession with Bogs sticking together."

"What are you talking about? I stick by my tribe no matter what!" Camicazi shrieked, offended that anyone could make such an accusation. She was a Bog through and through! How dare anyone question that!

"And yet it was a Hooligan by your side that day. Whenever you do something truly important it's always him by your side, isn't it? Burgling Roman forts, breaking into the Meathead Public Library, investigating new dragon species, it's always him. So I ask myself, just who are you most loyal to?" he asked with a smug look.

Camicazi was pale. "How do you know about all of that?"

"Tales of the adventures of you two have traveled far. There isn't anyone within sailing distance of the Barbaric Archipelago that doesn't know of the fearsome Hiccup the Dragon Conqueror and Ze Great Camicazi."

Camicazi felt slightly nauseous. This man knew entirely too much about her and Hiccup for her liking.

"So my offer is simple. You help us steal the Visigoth's plans and Hiccup lives. Refuse, and he dies," the man said, stepping back and regarding her like she was nothing more than an interesting insect.

Camicazi shook her head to clear her mind. Then, having gained her bearings, she took a deep breath and looking the Roman in the eye, confidently said, "My answer is still no. Both of us may be stuck here chained up, but we won't be for long. We will escape, Hiccup will have a plan, and you will pay."

The man laughed, looking away. "I don't think you understand your situation. I'm not threatening to kill your friend. He's already well on his way there."

Camicazi's blood ran cold. "What do you mean?"

"You may have been knocked out quickly in our ambush, but your friend was not nearly as lucky," he replied sadly. "As soon as he saw you unconscious, he put up quite the fight. Unfortunately, he never really stood a chance."

The man stared straight at Camicazi. "He's mortally wounded. Took a sword straight to the stomach. He won't last more than a couple of hours without medical help, medical help that we can provide, with the proper incentive."

Camicazi stared at him with wide eyes, unable to form words. This couldn't be true. Hiccup couldn't be…

"If you think you can pull off a successful escape and get your friend proper medical care in less than two hours, be my guest. Otherwise…well, you know what you have to do."

He turned around and walked away, stirring Camicazi out of her reverie. Before he closed the door, she shouted, "Wait!"

The man didn't turn around, but Camicazi couldn't look at him anyways. "I'll do whatever you want," she whispered. "Just save him."

* * *

_A/N: So, hopefully this came across, but just so there's no ambiguity, the Roman's are playing both of them. Neither one is actually hurt. Yay! But they are still being held prisoner and forced to work for the Romans, so maybe 'yay' isn't the right word...See you next week! Unfortunately, next week won't continue with this storyline, but it will be a callback to another chapter._


	7. Eternity

_A/N: And here we have Chapter 7, which is a continuation of the first chapter. Not a whole lot happens here, but I'm mostly setting up a future chapter (Chapter 9 to be specific). Anyways, enjoy and feel free to let me know what you think! _

* * *

**Eternity**

It felt like it had been an eternity since Camicazi had seen anything besides the inside of this room. The walls were beginning to close in, and she was having a difficult time not succumbing to the madness. The isolation seemed to press against her from all around, creating a pressure in her chest that was threatening to explode at any minute.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggghhhhhh!" she road in defiance as she stood up and kicked the wall.

Who did her mother think she was, putting her in time-out.

Camicazi started pacing, unable to stay still any longer and making sure to give the wall a good kick each time she walked back towards it. She needed to think of a way to get out of this room, but the guard her mother had posted at her door was making that slightly difficult. What, didn't her mother think she could trust her own daughter?

Well, seeing as how she had already tried to sneak out twice and failed, maybe the lack of trust was well placed. It still stung though. She hadn't really done anything wrong either. All she had done was set an island on fire.

But it was just a small island, so it was fine, right?

She really had to hand it to her new friend Hiccup; that fire had really done the trick on the plants sealing that door shut. When they got to the small island just off of the beach, she had taken him to the mysterious stone door. Hiccup then used some flint and tinder to set fire to the overgrowth that covered the entire entrance. Unfortunately, neither of them had realized just how flammable all of the surrounding plant life had been until the entire island was going up in smoke.

They had quickly put their boat in the water to make sure it didn't burn either and headed back to shore hoping to get back before anyone realized they had gone. Sadly, a giant inferno wasn't exactly inconspicuous. Their parents had found them as soon as they touched the shore.

She and Hiccup had tried to explain that they had been on a Quest, but her mother had just scowled and said they were too young to do any sort of questing. Stoick had just rolled his eyes and muttered something about his son's overactive imagination.

Camicazi had been sent to her room indefinitely, and Hiccup was confined to his father's ship for the rest of the visit. Frankly, as disappointed as she was that they never got inside the door, Camicazi was more upset that she couldn't see her new friend.

None of the other girls in her tribe had ideas nearly as fun as Hiccup's. They also usually didn't like going along with her crazy schemes because for some strange reason, they didn't like to get in trouble. Didn't they know they were Vikings? Trouble was an occupational hazard!

Thankfully though, Hiccup apparently didn't have as many qualms about getting in trouble, and even though thing's hadn't gone exactly as planned, today was the most fun she had had in a long time.

Still, she likely wouldn't get to see him again for a very long time if their parents had anything to say about it. She growled in annoyance. How long had she been in here? Certainly she would be let out for dinner, wouldn't she?

Suddenly, her door opened, and her mother's second in command, Hildegard, came in carrying a plate of food and some water.

"Oh come on!" Camicazi whined. "I can't even leave for dinner?"

Hildegard gave her a look. "You'll be lucky if your mother ever lets you out of the house again. You set an entire island on fire."

"But it wasn't _our_ island!" Camicazi pleaded. "Look, I swear I'll never do it again, just let me eat at the Great Hall. I'll be good, I swear."

"Sorry lass, orders are orders. Now eat up, I'll be right outside." And with that, Hildegard set down the plate and left the room, leaving Camicazi alone once again. She heard Hildegard strike up a loud and apparently amusing conversation with someone else, because she heard the two adults start laughing.

Camicazi dejectedly plopped down on the floor. She grabbed the chicken leg off of her plate, but she was too depressed and couldn't bring herself to take a bite. Her mind wandered back to Hiccup. His father seemed even stricter than her mother, so he probably wouldn't be eating in the Great Hall either. Why did they have to be miserable just because of one little fire? It wasn't fair.

She felt her anger start to swell again, so stood up and walked over to the wall. She wound up and gave the wall one more mighty kick, hoping that this time it might actually feel satisfying.

Surprisingly it did, although not for the reason she expected. As her foot made contact with the wood, she suddenly felt it give. After a moment of just gaping at what she had done, Camicazi bent down to examine it closer. The board looked like it had a moldy patch about two feet from the bottom, and it was at that point that it had splintered, leaving the bottom portion of the board sticking outside the house and barely hanging on by a thread.

She grabbed the end of the board and snapped it off completely, looking at the hole that was just big enough for her to squeeze through.

Glancing back at the door, she realized that either Hildegard was too busy talking to have heard the wood break or she had just become too accustomed to Camicazi's tantrums to think much of it. Seizing the opportunity and thanking the gods that her room was on the first floor, Camicazi slipped through the hole, chicken still in hand, and started heading towards the Hooligan ships.

Nobody seemed to be around, but that was hardly a surprise as everyone else would be at the Great Hall feasting and celebrating. Walking in the moonlight, Camicazi turned towards the island that she and Hiccup had dubbed Door Island (they should probably think of a better name) and saw that it was still smoldering. Thankfully it was a very small island, so all of the plants had burned out rather quickly.

She soon found herself down by the docks. After wondering which ship Hiccup would be on, she decided to just try the biggest one. His father was the chief after all, so it would make sense that his ship was the biggest.

Once she got closer to the boat, Camicazi slowed down and moved as silently as she could. She stealthily pulled herself up the side of the boat and peered over the edge.

"Hrmph," she said as she realized that apparently Hiccup was trusted to stay put without having to employ guards. Ignoring this injustice, she pulled herself onto the deck and made her way to the tent at the middle of the ship. Sneaking a glance inside, she saw a miserable looking Hiccup picking at a burnt fish.

"I'll trade you," she said suddenly, holding out her own dinner that she had accidentally brought with her.

Hiccup nearly jumped three feet in the air. Whirling around, he spotted Camicazi and broke out into a grin.

"Camicazi!" he beamed, running over and giving her a hug. "I thought you were grounded?"

"Grounded, me?" she asked with mock offense. "Please, you can't keep a Bog Burglar under lock and key. Besides," she added with a sly grin, "you and me have some unfinished business."

"Huh?" Hiccup asked. "What do you mean?"

Camicazi just looked out towards Door Island and then back at Hiccup.

"Oh, oh no," he protested. "I'm already grounded indefinitely for that. We can't go back."

"But Hiccup," Camicazi pleaded, "we never got to see what was behind that door! Aren't you the least bit curious?"

Hiccup huffed. "Of course I'm curious, but we can't go back. We're already in too much trouble," he insisted.

"You just said that you were grounded indefinitely. How much worse can your punishment actually get?" Camicazi asked. "We're already in a ton of trouble, so what's one more thing?"

"Well…" Hiccup started. It was true, he couldn't really get in much more trouble than he already was. And as it stood now, his father wouldn't likely ever let him come back to Bog Island again, so shouldn't he do this while he still had the chance?

"As long as we're really quick," he said. "Just go there, see what's behind the door, then come back before anyone knows we're gone. And no setting anything on fire. Deal?"

"Deal!" Camicazi exclaimed. "Now come on, I know where there's another row boat we can use."

And with that, they both ran out of the tent and jumped onto the docks, the spirit of adventure and camaraderie strong within both of them.


	8. Gateway

_A/N: Here we have the next chapter! I hope you all like it, and feel free to let me know what you think!  
_

* * *

**Gateway**

_Stupid mother with her stupid rules for her stupid games, _Camicazi thought as she tiptoed through the deserted house. It belonged to some Hooligan whose name she had forgotten, and she was taking extra to make sure that she wasn't caught. There wasn't much chance of that anyways, though, seeing as how everyone was in the arena for the burglary tournament, but today was not the day for mistakes. With that semblance of assurance, she allowed her mind to wander.

It was that time of year again where her tribe sailed over to Berk to solidify the tribes' alliance, and the Hairy Hooligans and the Bog Burglars were celebrating by having a friendly competition over which tribe was better in the art of thievery. Camicazi didn't really see why the Hooligans thought they had a chance. The word 'Burglar' was right in her tribe's name for Pete's sake.

Nonetheless, Camicazi was glad that her mother, Big Boobied Bertha, had actually allowed her to come on this trip; after her and Hiccup's particularly nasty incident involving the 'Quest for the Weird Door' (they never did think up a better name) she was afraid she would never be allowed anywhere near another Hooligan again.

Jolted back to the present, Camicazi froze as she thought she heard the door of the house she was sneaking around in creak open. After realizing it had just been the wind, she sighed in relief and returned to the task at hand.

She walked over to a chest near the fireplace and opened it. Peering in, she saw that all it contained was some old clothes and an axe, and with a huff of disappointment, she resumed searching the house. She went back to thinking about why she was doing this in the first place.

When she and her mother had stepped off of the ships onto the docks at Berk, she had immediately rushed over to greet Hiccup, who had been just as excited to see her. They chatted excitedly, eager to share with one another what had been going on since they had last seen each other. Hiccup had apparently become the apprentice to the blacksmith, something he was extremely proud of even though he hadn't really learned much blacksmithing yet.

Camicazi in turn had bragged about how much she had been learning about burglary, and how just last week she had become the proud new owner of a stolen gold piece. She went on to tell him how she was excited to show off to everyone in the burglary competition that their parents were planning.

At that particular moment, though, her mother had been passing by them. Upon hearing Camicazi's boasts, she interrupted, saying, "Camicazi, I told you the other day that you can't enter the burglary competition. It's only for the older kids and the adults."

Camicazi had felt crestfallen, and at her hurt look, Bertha had added, "Maybe in a couple years you can, but for now, just stay here and out of trouble. You said you wanted to see Hiccup again, right? Well, you two can play while the competition is going on. Just don't set anything on fire this time." And with that, her mother had walked away joking with Chief Stoick how her tribe was going to decimate his.

Camicazi was furious. She had been looking forward to this for weeks! Her mother had never told her that she couldn't enter the competition (unless it was during that very boring speech on how she didn't want a repeat of the fire incident, but really, how could she be expected to pay attention through that entire thing!).

And what did her mother mean that she wasn't old enough? Seven years old was plenty old enough.

She vaguely heard Hiccup suggest something fun for them to do instead, but she had been so angry she had just ignored him and stomped off.

She would show her mother. She was a good enough burglar to be in that competition. She was certainly better than all of those older kids. She just needed to find a way to prove it.

Which was why she currently found herself going from Hooligan home to Hooligan home and taking whatever valuables she could find. She was the Great Camicazi, the greatest Bog Burglar to ever live. Apparently she needed to make sure that everyone knew that. If she couldn't steal from Hooligans in the competition, she would just do it in their homes.

Maybe pulling off this great heist would be the gateway to actually being allowed into the competition. Or maybe it would only make her mother angry. Either way, it was a lot more fun than sitting around fuming.

Camicazi came to a bed and quietly bent down to check underneath it.

"Jackpot," she said aloud.

Under the bed was some sort of ornate shield, probably a family heirloom. She quickly grabbed it and headed towards the door, satisfied with her loot. That shield, combined with what she had taken from the other houses, was sure to make her point.

As she exited the home, she briefly wondered what to do now. Her mother was surely in the middle of her competition, and it wouldn't do Camicazi any good to interrupt it. Still, she wanted to brag to somebody about this.

Dragging the shield behind her, Camicazi made her way to the blacksmith stall, deciding to share her success with her best friend.

She walked through the door and spotted Hiccup attempting to put away a rather large hammer. He was having a bit of difficulty though since the hammer was a large as he was.

Dropping the shield, Camicazi ran over to him. "Here, let me give you a hand with that," she said as she grabbed part of the hammer and started heaving it up with him.

After a minute of intense struggling, they finally managed to place it on its hook.

Hiccup panted for breath. "Thanks….Camicazi…I could've…done it myself…but still…thanks."

"What…are friends…for," Camicazi panted back.

"Are you okay?" Hiccup asked after he managed to start breathing normally again. "You seemed pretty upset a couple of hours ago."

Camicazi started, remembering exactly why she had come to the forge in the first place. "Oh yeah! I'm great! I think I figured out how to prove to my mom that can compete in the burglary competition!" She ran over to the shield that she had left in the doorway. "Take a look at this!" she exclaimed.

Hiccup squinted at the shield. "Isn't that my Uncle Spitelout's shield?" he asked.

"I don't know. Maybe!" Camicazi said cheerfully.

After a few seconds, Hiccup asked the obvious question. "Why do you have my Uncle Spitelout's shield?"

"I burgled it!" she said proudly, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I also got this jeweled dagger," she said, pulling said item out of her pocket. "And this silver plate!" she finished, pulling the plate from out of her shirt. "I got some other small stuff too, but this is the best of it."

Hiccup merely continued to look confused. "I don't get it," he said simply.

Camicazi huffed. "Well of course you don't, you're just a boy," she said, setting down all of her booty and rolling her eyes. "I burgled all of this stuff to prove to my mom that I'm a good burglar. Now she has to let me into the competition! Or at least let me into the next one. I think this one might be almost over."

Hiccup furrowed his brow and pursed his lips, thinking over her explanation. "I don't mean to sound negative, but isn't stealing stuff from empty houses a lot easier than stealing stuff in an arena full of people?"

Camicazi's face fell. "Um…yeah, I guess it is," she mumbled dejectedly.

"I mean, it's a different kind of burgling, but I'm not sure how convinced your mother is going to be," he added nervously.

Camicazi looked at the shield she had worked so hard for. Suddenly her idea seemed really foolish when she looked at it from Hiccup's point of view. She glared at the offending shield, and promptly kicked it as hard as she could.

"Stupid shield! You didn't do me any good! Now I've wasted the past two hours stealing stuff that I'll probably get in trouble for!" she yelled at no one in particular.

"Wait Camicazi, stop!" Hiccup pleaded frantically. "I didn't mean to make you mad! All of this is still really impressive! You're a great burglar! I mean, look at all of this stuff. I could never have stolen all of that!"

Camicazi huffed. "You may be impressed by it, but my mom won't," she said gloomily.

"I think at this point, you might just want to settle for not angry. Come on, let's see if we can put this stuff back," he said, starting to pick up Camicazi's scattered loot.

* * *

An hour and several break-ins later, Hiccup and Camicazi found themselves back at the forge.

"How did you even manage to carry all of that stuff the first time?" Hiccup asked wearily.

Camicazi plopped down on a chair and cracked her back. "It's a Bog Burglar secret. Can't tell you," she replied simply. Glancing around for anything they had forgotten, she said, "Well, I guess that's that. My mom won't know I stole anything, and I still won't be able to take part in the Burglary Competition anytime soon."

"Well, to be fair, I don't think that her not letting you compete had anything to do with you not being a good enough burglar," Hiccup said as he sat down next to her.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, she said you could compete in a few years. I guess it's just one of those things you have to be older to do," he said.

The answer didn't satisfy Camicazi. "Why should age have anything to do with it? I'm just as good as a burglar as the older girls. Why shouldn't I compete," she argued stubbornly.

Hiccup shrugged. "I don't know, I think it's just a grown up thing." After a moment, he tried to add helpfully, "Maybe you could try to convince your mom that you can act like a grown up. Then she might let you compete."

Camicazi thought about that for a moment. "Well, what do the older girls do that I don't?" she asked. "I mean, I burgle things, I swordfight, I even go on raids!"

"I thought you said you didn't have permission to do that?"

"Please, like that's ever stopped me," she insisted. Camicazi continued to rack her brain. What's something 'grown up' that she could do to convince her mom she was old enough? What was something that the older girls did that she had never done? How could she find the gateway to being allowed into the burglary competition?

She started to hear people walking by, signaling that the competition was over. She had missed her chance this year, but there was always next year. The only thing standing in her way was her age. But there was one thing that she had never done that she had seen plenty of other girls do…

Soon both she and Hiccup could hear the boisterous voices of their parents coming their way. Bertha sounded far cheerier than Stoick, most likely because the Bogs had won to the surprise of no one. This was her shot; she would show her mother here and now that she was a grown-up.

As the two chiefs came into view Camicazi stood up and grabbed the front of Hiccup's shirt dragging him up as well. When Stoick and Bertha looked over at their two children, Camicazi firmly planted her lips directly on Hiccup's, just like she had seen countless other girls do with boys.

Kissing was a grown-up thing, right?

* * *

_A/N: I'll see you guys next week with an extra long chapter to conclude the 'Quest for the Weird Door.'_


	9. Death

_A/N: What is this? A chapter with an actual conclusion instead of just stopping in the middle of the action? Has Ragnarok come late? Anyways, here's the next chapter. It's a continuation of 'Introduction' and 'Eternity,' so this is the conclusion of the 'Quest for the Weird Door.' I'm not entirely happy with the final product, but then again I'm never fully satisfied with the final product of anything I write. I hope you enjoy it, and let me know what you think!_

* * *

**Death**

The two young children moved quickly over the smoldering ground. The fire they had set earlier had left the ground hot to the touch, and even through their shoes, the walk was rather uncomfortable. Undeterred, they kept moving towards their destination.

"Wow," Camicazi breathed as they reached the center of the island and the object of their quest.

In front of her and Hiccup loomed a monstrous stone door, now devoid of the overgrowth that had plagued it earlier that day. Reckless or not, that giant fire had done the trick.

"Yeah, it looks a little bigger than I remember," Hiccup said uneasily. "Then again, last time we were here I was more concerned with not burning to death."

Camicazi huffed. "Will you let that go already? The fire was your idea in the first place, and it was a great idea because now we can get inside, so stop being so negative about it."

"Okay, okay," he responded placatingly. "So what now?"

"Well we didn't come all the way back here to just stand around. Let's go inside!" Camicazi said cheerily. She moved towards the door and firmly grabbed the ring that served as the handle. After pulling on it for a moment without much luck, she turned to Hiccup. "Well, are you going to help me or what?" she insisted.

Hiccup moved closer towards the door but didn't grab the handle, instead deciding to examine the carvings on it more closely. "Uh, Camicazi, I'm not so sure we should go in there."

"What do you mean," she grunted, still trying to pull the handle.

"Well, I'm pretty sure this is a burial mound, and our parents always say not to go near them. Also, the door says 'Do Not Disturb the Dead Unless You Wish to Join Them' on it," he said bluntly, pointing to an inscription that she hadn't noticed before.

Camicazi turned to him and shrugged. "All the better. If it is a burial mound, then there'll be a bunch of grave goods in there. Now _come on and help me!_" she insisted as she gave the handle another tug.

Hiccup stood indecisively for a few more seconds before going over to help pull the handle. "I guess we've already come this far. My dad's going to kill me anyways; might as well see what's inside."

"That's the spirit!" she beamed as the door finally started to budge with their combined efforts. Inch by inch the opening got wider, until it was finally enough that they could just slip through. After they entered into the mound, they paused as their eyes tried to adjust to the dim moonlight coming through the crack.

"Did you bring any flint?" Camicazi asked. "I can't see anything in here."

"Hey, I thought you promised we weren't going to set anything on fire," Hiccup teased as he reached into his pocket. "But I hope you brought some wood, because we kind of burned everything on the island already." He looked over to see Camicazi pulling an unlit torch off her back. "Aaaaand of course you happen to have a torch handy."

She smirked at him. "A Bog Burglar is always prepared. Now give me the flint." She then snatched it out of his hands and quickly lit her torch, fully illuminating the room. They both paused for a moment to take a good look around. It wasn't overly impressive, really just a small circular room in the center of the hill. The walls were simple stacks of stone with a few stone pillars scattered around the edges of the room, and above them was a giant slab of rock for a ceiling.

However, the most prominent feature of the room was the large stone box located directly in the center of the chamber. The runes along the side made it unmistakable: it was definitely a coffin.

"Yep, definitely a burial mound," Hiccup said matter-of-factly. "Well, now we've seen what's inside. Time to go!" he proclaimed, turning around to head back towards the door.

"Not so fast," Camicazi said, grabbing his shirt. "We still have to see if there's anything worth stealing in here." She stepped towards the coffin and starting pushing on the lid, trying to get it to slide off.

"What are you doing!?" Hiccup whispered urgently.

Camicazi paused and blew her hair out of her face. "Look around," she said, gesturing around the room. "People are always buried with their valuables, and there's nothing out in the open. All the treasure must be in the coffin. Now, are you just going to keep standing there, because you're being distinctly unhelpful."

Hiccup groaned, but decided that at this point he was in too deep not to see this through. Stepping towards Camicazi, he started pushing against the lid with her until it eventually slipped off. Cautiously, they both stood on their toes to peer inside.

Inside was creepiest looking corpse they had ever seen, although it was also the only corpse they had ever seen. It was mostly a skeleton, but here and there were swaths of dried flesh hanging onto the bones creating a most unsettling appearance. Camicazi almost shrank away at the sight, but refused to look scared at something so trivial as a dead body. Along with the disturbing look of the corpse was the pungent stench that poured out as soon as the lid came off the coffin. Hiccup did his best not to gag, but couldn't keep from coughing.

Eventually, they both were able to gain their wits again, and took a better look inside the coffin. True to Camicazi's prediction, there was something other than just a body within it.

There, in the grip of the cadaver, was a sheathed sword with a gleaming handle, delicately crafted using the finest materials either of them had ever seen. The scabbard itself was encrusted with jewels of all colors, causing a rainbow to spring up when Camicazi moved the torch closer.

"Ha!" she beamed. "Told you so!" She then hoisted herself up the edge and leaned forward, reaching for her prize. When she grabbed the scabbard, though, it didn't budge.

"Okay," she huffed in frustration. "Just once tonight can something actually budge when I try to move it?! Seriously, this guy has a death grip on this thing!"

"Well, he is dead," Hiccup snarked. "Here, let's try this," he said as he hoisted himself up alongside Camicazi. Instead of grabbing the scabbard like she had, since it was the part that the corpse was holding, he grabbed the sword by the handle and simply unsheathed it.

Looking at his handiwork, he proudly said, "Well, we got the sword at least. Is that good enough?"

Camicazi frowned. "I guess. I mean, it's a nice sword, but the scabbard does have jewels on it."

Shrugging, Hiccup simply said, "At least we won't leave empty handed. Besides, from what I've heard from Gobber, this looks like a spectacular sword. Look, it's even nice enough to have at name. Tyrfing," He announced, gesturing to the inscription on the blade. "Sounds valuable to me. Only the best swords are actually given names. Now come on, let's go. We might actually have a shot of getting back before our parents realize we're- " he suddenly cut off.

Outside he could hear the sound of approaching voices. Camicazi looked at the doorway then back at him, apparently hearing them too. "Hurry!" she whispered. "We need to hide!"

"Where?" Hiccup quietly shot back at her. "If we go through the door, whoever's out there will see us. And there's not really any good place to hide in here!"

"Then we'll have to settle for a not so good hiding spot," she said, quickly putting a damp cloth over the torch to put it out. She and Hiccup looked around for a moment before he grabbed her arm and pulled her behind one of the pillars. It definitely counted as a 'not so good hiding spot,' but they didn't exactly have a lot of options as the voices drew nearer, clearly headed towards the burial mound.

"Hey Hiccup," Camicazi whispered softly after a few moments.

"Yeah?" he whispered back, still clutching the sword Tyrfing.

"Is something in the coffin…glowing?" she asked with a slight tremble to her voice.

Before Hiccup could respond, the voices were right on top of them, and they saw someone enter the doorway with another not too far behind. It was too dark to be able to tell much about them, but one thing was for certain: they weren't Bog Burglars or Hairy Hooligans.

"Would you hurry up and get in here! We don't want to stay long. You never know when someone will come along and spot us," the taller of the two said. From the sound of the voice, Hiccup guessed that it was a man.

"Will you relax," the shorter one said, apparently female. "The entire place is burned to the ground. If anyone was here, they would have to be dead. So let's be sure to get a good look around to see if they left anything valuable behind."

The man swung around to look her in the face. "The neighboring island isn't deserted. We need to move fast. Besides, that door was open, someone could have been in here recently."

Camicazi moved to peer around the pillar to get a better look. Hiccup wanted to pull her back, but he didn't dare move for fear of attracting attention to them.

The woman harrumphed. "The door was only open a crack, and they're too busy celebrating whatever it is those kinds of folk celebrate to worry about us," she said exasperatedly. She continued to mumble, mostly to herself "Probably celebrating the birth of a goat or something; they are easily excited people."

"Look," the woman went on. "If anyone does come, we kill them, you know this. Now come on, let's see if there's any treasure to be had." She finally stepped into the room and took a good look around.

"You have got to be kidding me," she spat out. "We came all this way to investigate that giant fire, and all we got was a charred wasteland and an empty crypt. What the Hel was the point of this?!"

The man grumbled. "Well, what did you expect? It's a fire, they tend to burn everything in their wake." At the silence of the woman, he cried, "Look! I know we were hoping that the fire would be someplace more interesting so we could scavenge from the debris, but clearly there's nothing here! Now we both know this was a waste of time, so let's just go."

He turned to leave but the woman called out to him, "Wait a second. Maybe this wasn't such a waste after all." She stood over the coffin in the middle of the room and looked inside it. "What have we here," she said grinning. Hiccup and Camicazi both looked at each other knowing exactly what she saw in there.

She reached inside and tried to pull the scabbard they had left behind. After giving it a few tugs she let out a growl of frustration. "Get over here and help me with this," she shouted at the man.

"What is it?" he asked as he came over.

"A jewel encrusted scabbard," she said greedily. "There's no sword to go with it, but it looks like this trip wasn't completely pointless. Now help me get it; it's stuck."

They both began to pull on it, exactly like Camicazi had done earlier, when suddenly a low growl echoed throughout the room, causing everyone to freeze.

"What was that," the man whispered.

All of a sudden, the corpse that had until this point simply been a corpse began to move. The man and woman let go of the scabbard and slowly backed away from the coffin. They stared at the rising figure of the cadaver, too terrified to take their eyes off of it.

Hiccup and Camicazi watched from behind their pillar in horror as the corpse pulled itself to full height and dropped the scabbard at its feet. Despite the fact that the coffin wasn't over six feet long, the creature stood well over seven feet tall. Its bones creaked with every movement it made, and most horrifying was the way its eyes glowed with some sort of ancient power.

It was then that they all realized that this was no corpse; it was a draugr.

The creature gave out deafening roar as it reared on the two scavengers, both of them drawing their swords for the upcoming attack. The draugr simply took its arm and swiped at the woman, sending her crashing against the wall. A loud crack was heard as her head hit the stone, and she fell to the ground unmoving and most certainly dead.

She unfortunately hit the wall right near where Hiccup and Camicazi were hiding, causing them both to scream. This in turn caused the draugr to pay attention to them instead of the remaining scavenger. Upon seeing them, he yelled, "Who are you!?" but Hiccup and Camicazi didn't hear him as their attention was fully on the monstrous behemoth in front of them.

"Run!" Hiccup yelled as the draugr swung its arm at them. They darted to the next pillar as the draugr shattered the one they had been hiding behind moments before. It moved to attack them again, but turned around at the sound of a cry of pain.

One of the rocks from the now destroyed pillar had apparently struck the scavenger in the nose. Fortunately for Hiccup and Camicazi, the draugr decided to turns its attention back to him. "You little brats!" he screamed at them. "This is all your fault! I'll kill you!" The rest of his threats were put on hold as he had to concentrate on dodging the blows the draugr was now aiming towards him.

"I don't suppose you know how to kill a draugr, do you?" Camicazi whispered urgently to Hiccup.

Hiccup thought for a moment. He knew they were particularly hard to kill, seeing as how they were already dead, but he did remember one thing from the tales Gobber would occasionally tell him.

"Give me back the flint, I'm going to set him one fire," he whispered back just as urgently.

Without hesitating, Camicazi handed it to him, and Hiccup glanced at the draugr. It was taking swings at the scavenger, but he was doing a decent job of avoiding them all. Hiccup decided that he didn't want to try and get close enough to just take the flint and try light the draugr directly. He would need to light something else on fire first and then throw it at the monster.

Quickly, he took the sword he hadn't bothered to let go of and cut a chunk of his shirt off. He then took to lighting it with the flint, and soon, a small flame grew on the fabric.

Meanwhile, the draugr was still fighting the scavenger. It took one more swing at the man who quickly ducked. Unfortunately for him, the monster's swing struck a pillar which then proceeded to collapse on him, almost completely burying him underneath.

Hiccup took advantage of the draugr's distraction to throw the lit fabric onto its back. Within seconds, its dry skin was alight and the monster roared in agony. It rounded on Hiccup and knocked him as hard as he could, causing him to go flying. He hit the wall with an impact hard enough to knock the sword from his hand, but luckily, thanks to the draugr's weakened state, the impact wasn't as hard as that of the female scavenger. Hiccup was dazed, but overall unharmed.

With one final roar, the draugr collapsed to ashes, leaving nothing but a pile of dust behind. For a long moment, nobody dared to stir. The only sound that could be heard was the panting breaths of Hiccup and Camicazi as they tried to recover from what had just happened.

"Hiccup, are you alive?" Camicazi called out eventually.

"Yeah," he replied after a beat. He shakily stood up and took stock of himself. Two arms, two legs, no immediately obvious wounds. "Are you okay?" he called back at her.

"Yeah."

For a moment, Hiccup just stared at Camicazi blankly while Camicazi did much the same to him. Then they both just started running towards one another and enveloped each other in a great hug, each of them clinging to the other as if to make sure they both really were okay.

"That didn't exactly go as planned," Camicazi mumbled weakly into his shoulder. "You probably think this is all my fault because this was all my crazy idea and you didn't even want to be here and you probably don't want to be my friend anymore because I cause too much trouble and-"

"I absolutely still want to be your friend! And this is my fault too," Hiccup said as he hugged her tighter. He couldn't believe that he had only met Camicazi that morning. After all they had been through, it felt like they had been friends their entire lives. "I could have refused to help at anytime, but I didn't. I just kept helping set islands on fire and open doors and open coffins and steal swords. Truth is I wanted to be here just as much as you did."

Camicazi pulled back and looked Hiccup straight in the face. "Really?" she asked. "I wasn't just dragging you along against your will?"

"Of course not!" Hiccup insisted. "Truth is, ever since you told me about all of your adventures this morning, I wanted to go on an adventure too. I came because I wanted to, honest!" She didn't look particularly convinced, so Hiccup added, "Hey, you wanted to find some treasure, right? Let's see if we can find that sword again, because I accidentally dropped it."

Camicazi finally smiled. "Well, I guess we did come all this way. We might as well look for it." They glanced around the room, hoping to catch a glimpse of it. "There it is!" she said suddenly.

They both ran towards a large pile of rocks that had the sword sticking out of them. "I can't believe we got out of this with not just our lives, but also some treasure," Hiccup said laughing as he grabbed the sword handle and pulled it out of the pile. "Here Camicazi, I believe this is what you wanted," he said, holding out the sword for her.

Camicazi looked at it for a moment before shaking her head. "No, you keep it. You're the one who managed to get the sword in the first place. And you're the one who saved us from the draugr."

"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely," Camicazi said confidently, nodding her head. "You deserve it more than me."

"Thank you," Hiccup said earnestly. "Thank you so much."

"Don't mention it," she replied flippantly, gaining her spirit back. "Besides, now you can brag to everyone back on Berk about your new sword! I mean, look at its pretty handle, the nice inscription, the cool bloodstain-"

"Bloodstain?" Hiccup said suddenly. "It didn't have a bloodstain before." He took a closer look at the blade, and sure enough there seemed to be some blood on it.

"Oh, if you don't like it, you can just keep it in the scabbard," Camicazi said as she ran to the center of the room where the draugr had dropped the jeweled accessory. She then ran back and quickly jammed it over the blade.

"There! Good as new! And you even get this fancy thing out of it," she chirped.

"Yeah, good as new…" Hiccup mumbled. He went to take a closer look at the stone pile he had pulled the sword out of, but he was distracted by Camicazi before he got very close.

"Hey, um, Hiccup? Do you think we can go now? It just seems the longer we're here the more bad stuff happens. So, maybe we should leave," she said nervously, shifting her weight from foot to foot.

"Yeah, that sounds like a very good idea," Hiccup agreed. He had had more than enough adventure for one night. "Maybe if we're lucky, we won't get in trouble for any of this," he suggested weakly.

"Ha! Yeah right," Camicazi laughed. "You don't know me very well, do you?"

"Not yet, but we only met this morning. Give it time," he replied, smiling. He decided that he and Camicazi were going to be friends a long time, and he looked forward to getting to know his new friend better in the years to come. Preferably when they weren't trying to not get killed by undead monsters.


	10. Opportunities

_A/N: And here is the next chapter. This one is a bit more mellow because after the last one, I think the story needed a little breathing room. So here's a story about Hiccup needing a little breathing room! Enjoy and let me know what you think!  
_

* * *

**Opportunities**

"-and then they both disappeared into the clouds, we could only see the shadows! It was extraordinary!"

Hiccup choked into his drink as Gobber slapped him on the back. He appreciated the man bragging about his fight with the Red Death, but did he have to be so physical about it? If Gobber kept this up he wasn't going to survive until the end of this intertribal meeting.

It was the first time all the tribes had gotten together since the peace with the dragons, and the Hooligans were taking advantage of it to extol the heroics of 'The Dragon Conqueror'.

"Then at the last minute, he lit the Beast's gas before it even had a chance to fire. It was a fiendishly clever plan, isn't that right Hiccup?" Gobber boomed.

"Yeah, it sure was," Hiccup managed weakly.

Gobber went on finishing the story as Hiccup just listened, glad that at least he didn't have to be the one to recount it. Again.

After the fourth or fifth time telling the story, it had gotten a little old. By the eighth, he was completely sick of it and had no qualms about passing that particular honor on to someone else. Fortunately, Gobber had stepped up. Unfortunately, as the person of the hour, he still had to be present for each retelling.

The other Vikings began congratulating him at the end of Gobber's story, and Hiccup found himself forcing a smile onto his face. It wasn't that he didn't appreciate all the attention. In fact, it was a pleasant change of pace being able to talk to all these people as equals instead of the screw up he had previously been seen as.

It was fun.

For the first hour or so.

But by now Hiccup was ready to jump out of his skin. Every single person wanted to talk to him, and every time they did talk to him it was always the same. They'd exchange pleasantries, ask about each other's tribe, and then Hiccup would be asked about the 'Red Death Incident,' as everyone had taken to calling it. Then either he or someone else would go into the story. People would 'ooh' and 'ahh' at the exciting parts, and then when the story was over they would stick around and chat for a bit about one menial thing or another. Eventually, they would leave to go socialize with other people, but every time one group of Vikings left, another was right there waiting to takes its place.

And the process repeated itself. Over and over and over.

Sure enough, as if on cue, a group of Meatheads began to approach them, causing Hiccup to inwardly sigh. He glanced around at everyone else talking and socializing with one another and couldn't help but wonder how they all did it. Astrid had been making conversation with people all day, being pleasant and welcoming the entire time, and even at that moment she was talking to Tantrum of the Uglithugs and laughing like she was having the time of her life. Her grin was clearly not plastered on like Hiccup's faux smile.

He could practically feel every fiber of his being begging for him to make a break for it, to run out of the Great Hall and not look back, but he couldn't seem to find a good opportunity. He was the son of the chief, and now he was also the hero of his tribe. He wasn't allowed to just leave, no matter how tired he was of talking to people.

He just needed a few minutes to himself, but as the group of Meatheads drew nearer, he knew that wasn't going to happen anytime soon. Hiccup closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to enjoy the very brief pause in conversation while it lasted.

"Ah! There he is, just the person we wanted to see! We hear that little Hiccup here has quite the tale about a certain dragon the size of a mountain," one of the Meatheads said jovially.

Gobber beamed, oblivious to Hiccup's discomfort and excited to tell the story again. "Oh yes, it is quite the yarn. You see-"

Hiccup tried to steel himself for what he was sure would be another long and inescapable conversation (though he used that word lightly as he had been doing less and less talking as the night went on, content to leave most of it for Gobber). He glanced to his right to see if there was anything more interesting going on around him.

A little ways away he could see his dad talking with Mogadon with an anxious expression on his face. Interest piqued, Hiccup leaned towards them a bit to try and hear what they were saying.

"-stared about ten minutes ago. We're not quite sure what's going on since no one's been down to see, but the dragons are just making strange noises. I mean it's nothing too serious to worry about, they're not being destructive or anything, but I was just about to send someone to go look into it. You know, make sure everything's okay."

Hiccup could feel his heart rate pick up. This could be the opportunity he had been waiting for. He carefully sidled out of the group while everyone was busy listening to Gobber recount the sudden appearance of Toothless at the Final exam, and headed over towards his father.

"If there's a problem with the dragons, I can check it out," Hiccup said quickly, trying to hide his excitement at the prospect of getting out of there.

Stoick started at his son's sudden appearance. "Oh, Hiccup! Um, you don't have to bother with that. It doesn't sound like a difficult problem to deal with, and I don't want to force you to leave the party. Besides, it sounds like Gobber's getting to the good part. You should probably get back over to-"

"No!" Hiccup all but shouted. "I mean, really, I don't mind. I do know the most about dragons out of everyone here, don't I? I'm prefect for this task," he said, silently pleading that his father would say yes. He needed to get out of here. Now.

Stoick regarded him for a moment before sighing. "Oh all right. Just try not to take too long. We have guests to entertain after all."

But Hiccup was already headed towards the exit. When he pushed open the door and the cool summer breeze hit his face, he could practically feel the stress and discomfort of the past few hours melt off of him. He took a deep breath and just relished the silence.

His tranquility didn't last long however, because in the distance he could hear the squawking of some dragons. Invigorated by the night air, he headed in that direction.

As he approached the group of clearly agitated dragons, he saw the problem rather quickly; in the middle of the group was a large barrel of eels.

"What the…?" he said to himself as he got closer. Everyone in the village knew to keep eels away from dragons, and none of the tribes would have any reason to have a barrel full of eels.

"I wonder how that got there," said a voice off to his left. Hiccup swirled around and came face to face with a familiar pair of blue eyes.

"Camicazi! What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in the Great Hall with everyone else?" Hiccup asked, slightly relieved to finally be able to meet up with her. He had been so busy entertaining the other tribes, he hadn't had much time to spend with his best friend.

"Gift of the Bog Burglar. We're quite good at sneaking out of places," she said nonchalantly. "Now, unless I'm very much mistaken, dragons don't like eels very much, so we might want to get that barrel out of here."

Hiccup looked at her shrewdly. "You put that there, didn't you?" he asked, for the first time that night with a genuine smile.

Camicazi returned it with a smile of her own. "Well, I figured, since you're just a boy, and can't escape from crowds like I can, I would have to give you another opportunity to get out of there," she said as she began to lift the barrel.

Hiccup rushed to help her. "What makes you think I wanted to get out of there? Maybe I was having fun," he asserted. At her look, he added, "You never know, it could happen."

Camicazi rolled her eyes. "Oh please, you had a look on your face like you were experiencing extreme torment."

"Hey, I was smiling," he insisted.

"You smiled more when we were being chased by Romans through Fort Sinister. Even before you somehow managed to snag that crown, you still looked like you were having a better time than in there," she shot back.

They reached the beach and paused to dump the eels back into the ocean. "Yeah, well, I didn't have to make small talk with the Romans," Hiccup grumbled.

Camicazi wiped her forehead. "Well, your dad won't be expecting you back for a little while, thanks to my brilliant plan-"

"That's stretching it a bit."

"-so, what do you want to do?" she asked. As she gestured down the beach a ways, Hiccup could see their dragons, Toothless and Evan, waiting for them. "We've got dragons and time to kill. So what will it be?"

Hiccup closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Honestly, Camicazi, I just want some peace and quiet for a little bit."

Camicazi just nodded. "Okay, I can do that," and with that she suddenly let out a shrill whistle and their dragons started trotting down the beach towards them.

"Oh yeah, you're off to a rousing start of being quiet," Hiccup deadpanned.

"Oh hush you," she said as their dragons came to a halt beside them. Camicazi simply sat down and leaned against Evan's side. "Well?" she said, gesturing to Toothless, who was in a similar position.

Hiccup followed suit and leaned against his own dragon. For a few moments, both of them just stared out toward the ocean, listening to the waves lap against the shore.

"Camicazi?"

"Yeah?"

"…Thank you."


End file.
